Blackboard File & Content Management

Welcome to Tarleton State University's Blackboard 8! Blackboard is the online Learning Management System (LMS) of Tarleton State University. Blackboard enables the teacher to provide content, assignments, quizzes, live chat sessions, discussion boards, an internal e-mail system, announcements, and the grade book to students in a secure environment.

Workshop Overview In this workshop, participants will gain hands-on experience with a range of tools and utilities that can be used to build a course. First, you will learn to manage and organize the course File Manager and upload content files into the File Manager. You will then learn to create folders to organize and link you course content.

For your content management tasks, you will learn to create Web links and then to link them, and other types of files into a Content Learning Module. Some file types you will be working with include HTML pages, MS Word documents, PowerPoint files. You will also link a Discussion Topic, Quiz, and an Assignment into the learning module.

Once the Learning Module is complete you will arrange and organize the links in the module. As a final touch, you will learn to add a Header to your course. This is representative of a "Banner" that can be placed on each organizer folder to enhance the appearance of your course. Finally, you will create backups to use as a safeguard when making major design changes to your course.

Training Topics in this Workshop

• Uploading & Linking a Syllabus • File Management • Content Management with Learning Modules • Creating Header/Footer for Organizer Folders • Backup and Restore • Converting Documents to PDF format

What You'll Learn

After completing this workshop, you will be able to:

1. Inserting a Syllabus Into Your Course 2. Add a Syllabus to your Course Home Page 3. Upload files and folder groups to the new section 4. Create Folders on Content Home Page 5. Adding files into the course 6. Arranging folders and files on the Home Page 7. Create a Learning Module 8. Add html pages, pdf, web links and documents to a Learning Module 9. Add discussions and assignments links to your Learning Module 10. Organize your learning module table of contents 11. Create a Header for your Content Home Page 12. Create a Backup and Save as a File 13. Create a PDF file for use in Blackboard

How to Upload a Syllabus Into Your Course The first step most instructors do right away is to complete a Syllabus for their course.

From Build Tab:

1. From the Build Tab, click on the Course Tool "Syllabus." 2. Make sure "Use File" is selected, then click "Select."

3. Click "My Computer", then navigate to file and click "Open." The file will then be placed in the course under your Course Tools. We strongly recommend you use a PDF file when loading Word Docs or PowerPoints into Blackboard. At the end of this workshop is a lesson on Creating PDF's for Blackboard.

Adding the Syllabus to Your Homepage After you've added the Syllabus to your Course Tools you can then add the Syllabus to the Homepage.

From Build Tab:

1. Click "Add Content Link" on the Homepage.

2. Choose "Syllabus" from the drop-down list.

Adding Folders and Linking Single Files The Process:Creating Folders are a good place to organize your course's content. For example, you may want to create a "Resources" page to place links to Word documents, Power Points, Web links and PDF files.

Below is the process to create a Folder titled " Resources " and link various kinds of content pages onto the page.

1. Click on " Course Content " in the course menu and select " Create Folder " button and create a new folder on the Content Homepage called " Resources ".

2. Go to the new folder and chose " Add File " button and " Browse for files " option.

3. In the Content Browser, select the My Computer icon and browse to the content you'd

like to add, i.e., PDF files, PowerPoints, Word Documents, etc.

4. The file links will appear on the Resources folder.

Arranging Folders and Files on the Homepage

Arranging the folders and files on your Course Homepage can be accomplished in two ways:

1) Clicking the "Action Link" icon beside the file/folder and choosing the 'arrow' to move the item up, down, left, or right.

2) Clicking the "Page Options" button and choosing the "Go to Power View" option. Watch the follow movie for a demonstration of using the Power View. (Online Training Only)

Return to the Basic View after completing your folder/file organization by clicking the "Go to Basic View" option.

File Management System

From the Build Tab under the Designer Tools is the File Manager. In the File Manager the instructor can Create Files, Get Files, and Create Folders.

Creating a Learning Module Blackboard 8 incorporates creating Learning Modules as one option in the Course Tools. Learning modules are specific content organized into a folder and presented in the order the instructor would like the student to see. Example:

The first item in Learning Module Example A is an Introduction to the Unit, followed by a specific Website link, a Discussion Board link, Assignment, and completed with a Unit Quiz.

Creating Learning Modules are a step-by-step process:

1) From the Build Tab, click on "Learning Modules" in the Course Tools

2) "Create New Learning Module"

3) Name Learning Module

4) Add Content

5) Reorder Content, if necessary

6) Post link of Learning Module on Home Page or in specific folder

Creating a Header After you have completed adding a Syllabus, content, web links, assignments, assessments, etc., you may want to enhance the appearance of your section by adding headers to each organizer page (folder), changing colors and icons, and organizing the course menu.

From Build Tab

1. Click on " Course Content " from the Course Menu.

2. Click the " Page Options " button and choose the " Edit Header " option in the dropdown menu.

3. In the Edit Header screen, choose " Enable HTML Creator " button.

4. Center Justify and then click the " Insert image " icon. 5. In the " Insert Image " screen select " Browse " and navigate to an appropriate image

file. 6. Select the file and click " OK " and choose " OK " again. 7. Using Arial font, right justify, and normal size, enter course information, such as,

instructor's name, course name, course term, etc. 8. Choose " Save " button

Creating a Backup and Saving the Backup as a File Process: In this exercise, you will create a backup of your course and convert the backup to a file that can be downloaded for future use. The backup process itself is simple to do. CITDE also creates complete backups of all courses on a regular basis throughout the year. They are stored on an off-site location for recovery from a catastrophic event.

From the Build Tab:

1. Click on the Manage Course (red tool-box" icon. And choose the " Backup " link. 2. Click the Back up Course button. 3. Click OK. The backup process will be added to a queue and processed as server time is

allocated. For this course, the backup only takes a few seconds so you can click the

Manage Course link on the Course Menu and the Backup link to see your backup status.

4. Click the Action Icon beside the backup title and choose Save as File option. The " Browse for Location screen will open. Select My Files and click the OK button. The file will be saved in the Content Manager / My Files location.

Note:You can select the My Computer icon and download the backup to your computer, "T" Drive, or portable storage media, as well.

Creating a PDF file for Blackboard PDF or Portable Document Format files are highly recommended for use in Blackboard. The files are easy to create, keep the students in the Blackboard system, and with image-rich documents create a smaller file size.

In Word 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 it is easy to change documents into PDF. Click on the "Save As" and chose "Adobe PDF" option.

If you do not have the option to save a document as a PDF file you may need to obtain a small patch from MicroSoft. Go here to obtain the patch.

You can get help with Blackboard anytime at our Helpdesk:

Email: support.citde@tarleton.edu Phone: 254-968-1960 or Toll Free 1-866-744-8900 - Option 3

Walk in: Tarleton Center Room 131

Website: http://online.tarleton.edu/online_support/index.htm

Center for Instructional Technology & Distributed Education

Faculty Training & Innovation

Tarleton State University

T-0810, Stephenville, Tx 76402

Tarleton Center 131

http://online.tarleton.edu

Phone: 254-968-9307

Revised August 19, 2010